Elder, Usher, and Acolyte Schedules for September 2018

Elder and Usher Schedule

Date
8:00
Elder
10:30
Sep 2Gerald Semelka, Mike Field, Paul GerikeRandy ReinhardtBud Kessler, Curt Kessler
Sep 9Nick Hitch, Steve ParryBarry HamlinBrian Dirks, Randy Reinhardt, Theron Noth
Sep 16Daryle Schempp, Joshua Parry, Craig CulpNathan KluenderBob Love, Greg McNeely
Sep 23Nathan Kluender, Paul GerikeMike FieldBud Kessler, Curt Kessler, Mike Huth
Sep 30Gene Fuller, Richard Ross, Steve ParryPaul GerikeBrian Dirks, Randy Reinhardt, Theron Noth

Acolyte Schedule

Date
8:00 AM
10:30 AM
Sep 2Clayton PiperPastor/Elder
Sep 9Pastor/ElderJustin McNeely
Sep 16JT PiperPastor/Elder
Sep 23Pastor/ElderJessica Isaac
Sep 30Tanner HitchWill McNeely

Stewardship Corner September 2018

It’s September, and everything is in full swing again: back to school and back to church attendance after vacations and weekends away.  And since everything is back into full swing, it’s a perfect time to get back to basics, back to the foundation.

At the end of the first of his chapters on the virtue of faith in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis provides a helpful reminder, by way of analogy, for the foundation of stewardship.  He wrote:

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God.  If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.  So then, when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God, I will tell you what it is really like. It is like a small child going to its father and saying, “Daddy, give me six pence to buy you a birthday present.”  Of course, the father does, and he is pleased with the child’s present. It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is six-pence to the good on the transaction.  When a man has made these two discoveries God can really get to work. It is after this that real life begins. (128–129).

This is the first thing we are given to confess about stewardship, and it has to do with ownership. God owns everything, and we are simply managers — stewards — acting on His behalf.  This is true not only of all that we have in this life (Deuteronomy 8:17–18), but also all that we are in this life (1 Corinthians 6:20).

The rest flows from here.  Since we are stewards, or managers, of what belongs to God, entrusted to make use of it according to His will, there is an expectation of responsibility and accountability.

For the Lord said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48b).

And from this comes blessing and reward: “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

We have everything we need to support this body and life from our God’s fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in us.  We have everything we need for our spiritual life also from His merciful hands.

On account of the sacrifice of His Son, our Lord Jesus, through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, we have the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and everlasting salvation delivered to us with absolute certainty that it is ours — not as stewards but as sons (Galatians 4:1–7).

Let us then, as His own sons, press all that He gives to us into the service of His church and to His glory.

Celebrating September 2018

Birthdays

Nathan Kluender                    Sep  5

Randy Reinhardt                    Sep  6

Rev Chad Lueck                     Sep  9

David Marlow                         Sep 10

Andrea Brown                       Sep 16

Janet Evans                          Sep 20

Jeffrey Piper                          Sep 22

Hope Kirchner                       Sep 25

Bill Huber                               Sep 26

Cleo Korte                              Sep 26

Ron Kwasny                          Sep 27

Karah Kemp-Golden             Sep 28

Baptismal Birthdays

Katey Parry                            Sep  2

Joann Nottingham                Sep  3

Jeannette Ross                     Sep  6

Joann Hart                             Sep 10

Becky Love                            Sep 10

Emilia Schempp                    Sep 14

Karah Kemp-Golden             Sep 17

Bryan Benjamin                     Sep 18

Mary Hall                                Sep 18

Clayton Piper                         Sep 20

Michael Huth                         Sep 25

David McEleney                    Sep 26

Randy Reinhardt                    Sep 30

Pastor’s Notes September 2018

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As human beings we are a funny and confusing people.  When we are kids we want to mature to be able to do things that adults can do.  When we reach a certain age as adults we want to be kids again.

When I was a young man I was always striving to “play with the big boys.”  One of my uncles is 12 years older than I am.  When we would be at my grandma’s he had a group of friends that would play basketball at the local LCMS School.  I remember this from a young age and still recall when my uncle asked if I wanted to play.  I thought I had made the “big time.”  I had matured to the point where I could compete with fellas older than I was.

The other instance was on the other side of my family.  When we got together on Christmas Eve it was eating, gift opening and then the adults played cards.  Being the oldest cousin I was put in charge of the other cousins.  A nice, mature responsibility to be sure, but I wanted at that card table.  I finally made it and all of this played into my maturity, responsibility, and independence.

Paul writes this to the Colossians, “Him (Jesus) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  This is what we strive for.  To have a faith that trusts in our Savior.  We don’t want to be that infant crying when things don’t go our way.  We want a faith that stands tall, that doesn’t break down when the valleys come.  A certain maturity that comes with experience.

At the same time we don’t want to lose the “child-like” faith that Scripture talks about.  This is the danger because as adults we see so much, we deal with so much, we can become cynical and jaded and our trust can erode.  The beauty is that the Holy Spirit can lead us down a path of a child-like faith with maturity.  Our faith plays with “the big boys” and we have a seat at the table.

Prayerfully we are always growing which lasts a lifetime.  Just look at what the Lord has taught you in just the last year.  By virtue of our Baptism into Christ we can be what the Lord wants us to be – mature Christians with wisdom proclaiming Christ and Him crucified.

In Christ,

Pastor Lueck

Sermon Text for Sunday, August 12, 2018.

August 12, 2018                                                                            Text:  1 Kings 19:1-8

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Have you ever heard of these two women – Elisabeth Lammerhirt and Margarethe Lindemann?  They married, bore children and kept house.  They lived hard-working and rather ordinary lives.  Like women of their day they didn’t write books or poetry or build cathedrals.  You probably don’t know who they are.  Yet, without them, you wouldn’t be a Lutheran, and you wouldn’t sing many of the hymns that you love.

You see, Elisabeth was the mother of Johann Sebastian Bach; Margarethe, the mother of Martin Luther.  They didn’t know their sons would change the world.  Elisabeth died when Bach was nine years old.  Margarethe didn’t know what would become of her son until late in life.  They thought all their hard work, sacrifice and love wouldn’t amount to much.  They were wrong.

Elijah in our text for this morning thought he was a failure.  He didn’t see that the Lord would bless his hard work and sacrifice.  Like the prophet we can become discouraged with our lives.  The Lord of life helps us to see this day that we too are blessed.

“DISCOURAGED?  BE ENCOURAGED THROUGH CHRIST”

Elijah thought his work had been rewarded.  The 450 prophets of Baal had been slaughtered and the three-year drought was over.  It was going to rain.  But it didn’t work out that way.  Jezebel was not repentant, but angry.  She threatened to kill Elijah.  The people had forsaken God’s covenant, broken down his altars.  Elijah thought he was alone.  He crawled under a tree, and asked God to take his life.

Do you ever want to crawl under a tree because of your discouragement?  We pray.  We attend worship regularly.  We volunteer.  We give a portion of our income.  But the congregation may not grow at a pace we think it should.  Sometimes the finances can be tight and there is always something that needs to be fixed.  It can leave us frustrated.  And we ask, “why bother?”

What we forget is that we can’t make the congregation grow by our own efforts.  Our energy is not endless.  Both people inside and outside the church are sinners.  God does not call us to be successful, but to be faithful.  It is Jesus who saves.  It is the Holy Spirit who calls us by the Gospel and enlightens us with his gifts.  He calls us to hear God’s Word, to love our neighbors, to witness about Jesus and to cherish the Sacraments He gives us.

Think of how discouraged you can get when you try to change a person.  A spouse, a child, a grandchild, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor.  Your efforts may help but the person needs to make the changes needed.  And more than that they and us always need the leading of Christ in our discouragement.

This is what the Lord did with Elijah.  God had fed the people in the desert with the manna and God the Son would feed 5,000 in the wilderness.  So now God feeds his prophet.  God did not grant his prayer to die.  Instead, the angel of the Lord, the Son of God came to him and brought him bread and water.  This meal and subsequent meals gave the prophet the strength to go on.  God would later tell Elijah that he was not alone and his work was not in vain.

Jesus comes to you and I in the same way.  Our discouragements are many but we cast our cares upon Him.  He took our sins upon himself and bore them all to the cross, where he died the death we deserved and paid all the debts we owed for them.  He won for us there forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

And I think you also know the other way we are encouraged like Elijah.  God feeds us not just bread and water, but his own body and blood in the bread and wine of his Supper.  This assures us that Jesus is with us personally.  We are refreshed and can move forward in the strength of the Lord.

Elijah did that for forty days and forty nights.  The number forty is often used in Scripture for a period of testing, judgment, preparation and discipline.  The great flood lasted forty days and nights.  Moses spent forty days on Horeb, while God gave him the Ten Commandments.  The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness.  God gave Nineveh forty days to repent.  Jesus wandered in the desert and fasted for forty days prior to his temptation by the devil.

Where have you had your forty days and nights?  Are you living through them now?  The testing, the discipline, the discouragement.  Be encouraged through Christ Jesus your Lord and Savior.  In all of the situations listed above, the people came out on the other end of it better off and blessed.  The Lord rose spent forty days and nights among his people and ascended to heaven.  Because of this we are not alone as the Lord looks after us.

God has called you to labor for His Kingdom.  He encourages your sacrifice and your gifts.  Come out from under the tree, there is work to do.

Amen.